Qingdao 青岛
In June we visited Qingdao – home of Tsingtao beer – on China’s eastern coast in Shandong province. Qingdao is very different from anywhere else I’ve been in China. It’s a seaside city that – despite having a population of 7.5 million people – is so clean, relaxing, and quiet I almost forgot I was in China. The food is cheap, the people are very friendly, and the city has a very visible beer culture that is everywhere! Beer is sold in plastic bags on the street, people seem to be drinking beer at every meal, and where in other cities you’d see people drinking tea in little shops, in Qingdao it’s beer. We drank at least a couple of pitchers with every meal from breakfast to dinner during our time there and it was great. 干杯 !